Efficient and reliable management of system resources is critical to the success of many businesses, both large and small. Employees within a company need access to various tools and resources within the company's information handling system (or systems). It is not unusual for one employee to have several, or even dozens, of authorizations, logons, and passwords, which allow the employee to access the tools and resources she needs to perform her job effectively. A further complication is that typically each employee, or group of employees in the case of a larger company, requires access to different combinations of information resources.
A problem often arises when an employee leaves a company, or takes a different job within the same company. It is often desirable to revoke all of the employee's accesses to information resources. However, if the employee has several authorizations or passwords, it is easy to inadvertently overlook one or more of these authorizations. This can create a security problem in that an employee (or former employee) may continue to have access to resources to which she should no longer have access.
Many types of resources require revalidation on a periodic basis. Currently, users must revalidate all logons, passwords, and authorizations one at a time. If the user forgets to revalidate one or more authorizations, the user may suddenly find herself without access to a needed resource.
Prior art approaches have focused on the problem of verifying the identity of a person attempting to gain access to a particular resource. Currently, there is no system or method available which addresses the problem of managing and allocating all resources within an information handling system.
Consequently, it would be desirable to have a system and method for managing and allocating resources in an information handling system. It would be desirable to allow users to request and obtain access to all needed resources in one place. It would also be desirable to provide a system and method for tracking resource allocation and use, and for allowing all user authorizations to be either revalidated or canceled at the same time, while maintaining a high level of security.